Exclusive
Best of rivals, best of friends – photographer Ella Ling discusses her iconic image of Federer and Nadal
Two weeks have passed since the tennis world bid an emotional farewell to one of the greats to ever play the game – Roger Federer. A weekend filled with emotion at the Laver Cup saw the eagerly anticipated finale to the 20-time Grand Slam champion’s career as he teamed up with long-term rival and friend, Rafael Nadal, for one last match.
The moments that followed left the crowd and players in fits of raw emotion – captured eloquently in what has become one of tennis’s most iconic photographs, showing both Federer and Nadal in tears whilst holding hands on the team bench.
The artist behind this beautiful shot is none other than ATP and WTA photographer Ella Ling. We recently caught up with Ella to discuss the image that has captivated the world as well as getting an insight into her journey into sports photography and her experiences covering the tours.
Why do you think your photo of Federer and Nadal has had such an impact on people around the world?
It’s almost difficult now for me to look at it objectively after everything that’s happened since.
For me, the reason it’s so impactful is because you have these two male athletes who wouldn’t normally show any emotion on court, and they just aren’t afraid to sit there and release everything.
They were holding hands and squeezing each other’s legs, which is just something that just wouldn’t have happened say 20 or 30 years ago.
The fact that they did that is such a beautiful thing, because they have always been rivals but above that, they’ve become friends and I think that really comes out in the picture.
What drew you to sports and tennis photography in the first place and how did you get into it?
It’s a very long story – so I’ll try and keep it short!
I come from a tennis family, always played from a young age and basically, just love the sport. I go to Wimbledon every year with my family, but when I was 16, just after my GCSEs, my Dad gave me my first camera and all I wanted to do was take photos of my favourite players.
For me there was just no better feeling than getting your photos back after going to a match and seeing my images of the biggest stars.
I studied Architecture at university but always kept up with photography as a hobby and through my aunt, I managed to get in touch with the Sports Editor at the Telegraph to find out how to pursue it as a career. I don’t think this would happen anymore, but he gave me the number of their cricket photographer and I ended up going along to shadow him at a 20/20 match. He showed me where to sit, what to do framing wise and things like that – I don’t like cricket that much, but I just loved the experience.
His colleague was going to Wimbledon the following week, so I called him up. He said, ‘if you can get in with a ticket as a fan, I’ll meet you’, so I queued up from 6:00am met him and he told me to go around the grounds shoot some images and then show him my favourites. I showed him my images, he said they were alright and took me inside to meet the official Wimbledon photographer, who ended up taking me under his wing and got me in for the rest of the tournament. By the end of the fortnight, I had my first picture on the Wimbledon website and that feeling was just the best thing in the world for me.
He owned an agency called Pro Sport at the time and let me use them to get credentials to other events, so I used my savings and went travelling to the US, staying in hostels and on people’s sofas, while visiting these tournaments and building my portfolio. I had no formal training at all, I was just learning on the job and making contacts along the way.
What have been some of your favourite tournaments to capture during your career?
The Australian Open is one that I always really look forward to – the light down there is incredible. A lot of the courts have a roof over them and even when it’s open it creates these shadows across them in the late afternoon and I like playing around with different light effects, so you end up with around 30 minutes a day to create some really stunning images.
Indian Wells is always another good one, but Wimbledon is the classic – it’s completely iconic. There’s no advertising so the courts are so pure – as it always has been – and you just have the crowd as your background. You can just focus the full attention on the player without the image being distracted by word.
What are your favourite images you’ve taken over the years?
I think when Andy Murray won Wimbledon for the first time in 2013, there were so many beautiful images of that moment. I can’t recall the match at all, but I remember that while they were playing the weather had been overcast and then almost from the moment he won, the sun came out and it created this beautiful soft light, making everything golden.
I was lucky to be positioned right by where he collapsed on his knees and I could capture the emotion in the moment, which was special.
There was another photo from that match where he was walking around the court with the trophy, facing the crowd. I took a shot of him out of focus in front of the crowd and just everyone had their phones out taking a picture, which I found really interesting. Although nothing changes at Wimbledon, it represents the day and age that we’re in.
There’s a beautiful one of Federer at Madrid as well. That’s another one where they have these retractable rooves and you get these black backgrounds towards the late afternoons. He’s playing on the baseline but with his body moving backwards, so he just pops out of the shadow, and he plays his iconic backhand, which is such a pure image.